Page 84 of Just A Little Magic

“That should work. As for Saturday being a long day, the drive itself is just a couple of hours. The hospital is pretty good with flex time, and I know Jakob has plenty of comp time available, so it should be fine.” Reed turned to Gabe and asked, “What about Rory and Anders?”

“Rory is fine since he works from home, but Anders having to take a couple of days off might be difficult.”

By the time our food arrived, I’d explained how I’d been working on this plan for a few months and already had the custom pieces ordered and had only needed to schedule the delivery. The wallpaper company had recommended some contractors, and I was able to get the wallpaper installation scheduled because there was no damned way we’d figure that out without the paper being ruined.

By the time dinner ended, the guys had texted their boys, who all enthusiastically agreed. Anders said he couldn’t take off Wednesday but would try for Thursday and Friday. Hopefully, he’d be able to join them because ifanyoneneeded a break from work and life, it was him. All that was left to do wasconvince Owen he needed to turn the reins of the Halloween party setup to the extremely competent banquet staff at Quill and the club.

“Barrett, are you sure this is a good idea? Could we reschedule this for next month or in the spring? You know how seriously Rory and Jakob take themselves at the Cuddle Crew Conference for the party planning in the Rumpus Room.”

Owen stopped briefly and added, “Will Anders be stuck doing all the work because that’s not fair. He has enough to worry about without adding party planning to the mix.”

“I think they named it the Cuddle Crew Confab, and I won’t let him do any work. He did call me about it, and I told him the banquet staff would handle setting up everything and there wasn’t anything left to do. He accidentally mentioned that his boyfriend was the one who refused to approve his leave request for Thursday or Friday, but I don’t think he meant to tell me because he ended the call right after.

“Babe, it’s going to be fine. The banquet staff knows what to do. They have your phone number, your email, and your social media. And they have all that for me too. I will keep an eye on everything. I can even send you pics to check their progress.” I ran my hands up and down his arms in a losing battle to soothe him.

“And you’re sure this can’t be rescheduled?”

“I’m one hundred percent certain. You and the boys need time to check out the amenities at what will become our closest competitor. Plus, Quinn is sending Tye out Saturday morning to do the walkthrough with you. That was the only time he had available, and the room situation at your hotel only gets worse the closer it gets to snow potential.”

“Uh, when you were a kid, didn’t your mom tell you never to trust anyone who says things like trust me?” Owen snorted.

“No, but she told me I should tell my boyfriend I love him at least twice daily. “

“Is that what we are?” Owen leaned back so he could look me in the eyes. I dropped a soft kiss on his pretty lips because why the hell not? “Is that how you see me?”

“We live together. I thought the boyfriend thing was self-explanatory.”

“Temporarily. You can’t just decide arbitrarily. We need to have discussions about these types of situations.”

“We do?”

“Indeed, I also think it’s best if we table this discussion until a more appropriate time and place.”

Ha. Owen’s tone and words had turned formal. His forever tell that we’d reached uncomfortable territory for him.

“Perhaps we could schedule it for several weeks until we’ve had a chance to discuss it properly and see how everything else goes.”

“Or,” I said with a smirk, “we discuss it next week after you return from the mountains. That clean air is good for clear thoughts or some such shit.”

“I’m not familiar with that phrase.”

“Me either, but it sounded good.”

“Debatable.” Owen reached down to pick up his toiletries bag and weekender suitcase, which I plucked from his hands and moved to carry myself. I had them halfway to the door when Owen stopped dead in his tracks. “What about Elizabeth?”

“What about her?”

“What if she thinks I’m abandoning her?”

“Babe, I promise you can FaceTime her so she knows you’ll be back. It’sgoing to be fine.”

As if she knew she was needed, Elizabeth jumped off the bed and wound her way around his ankles. Owen lifted her and snuggled her all the way down the stairs. Owen spoke to her in a low tone, and she answered with a series of meows and mewls. Weird but also so frigging cute.

At the bottom, Owen took Elizabeth to the catio and put her on her favorite perch. I sidled up behind him and rested my chin on his shoulder. He hung on my arms with his hands and leaned his head back. “I’m being silly.”

“About what?”

“I feel so strange when I’m away from her. Like something is missing. And”—Owen cleared his throat—“I’m going to miss you too. I haven’t slept alone in weeks. I’ve gotten used to you and your snores.”

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